A Menace To Society
by asingulardoorknob
Summary: Peter Parker may not agree with most of the Avengers choices, but he was never completely against them. However the Avengers don’t quite seem to realize that.
1. Approached by the Avengers

Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff stood around a large table staring at a screen.

"We need to do something about him," Tony said, gesturing at the picture of Spider-Man on the screen. Natasha and Steve nodded.

"We need to unmask him," Natasha said.

"I agree, but how would we do that?" Tony said. Natasha shrugged and looked at Steve.

"Ask him to join the Avengers? Then, depending on his answer, we would at least know where his loyalties lie," he said slowly. Tony frowned.

"That could work." Natasha turned back to the screen.

"It's worth a shot," she said. Tony nodded once.

"Then it's decided. I'll go out tonight when he's on patrol and I'll ask him to join the Avengers," he said, shutting off the screen.

Peter Parker slipped out his window and onto the smooth wall of his apartment building. He took a deep breath of the late night air a smiled. This was the best part of his day. He shot a web across the road to the next apartment building over and began to swing through the city looking for trouble. Three bank robberies and nine attempted assaults later, Peter sat calmly atop a tall skyscraper, looking out over the New York skyline.

"Spider-Man," a confident voice called. Peter whirled around to find Iron Man standing directly behind him. Peter jumped up.

"What do you want?" he asked cautiously. Stark scoffed.

"Relax, Underoos. I just need to ask you a question." Peter frowned.

"Underoos?" he asked. The Iron Man suit opened up and Stark walked out wearing a full suit and tie. He rolled his eyes.

"Nicknames are fun," he responded with a shrug. Peter sighed.

"Fine, whatever. Now what do you want, Stark? From what I've gathered you and the Avengers don't like me to much." Stark wiped a hand across his face.

"That's because you get in our way sometimes," he said. Peter shook his head.

"No. It's because I'm the only person who dares disagree with the choices of the mighty Avengers when I think the decision is wrong. It's because I'm the only one willing to stand up for the little guys," Peter said angrily. Tony sighed.

"Whatever. I actually came here on behalf of the team to ask you to join the Avengers." Peter laughed.

"Hell no. Did you hear anything I just said? The Avengers are crooked and biased, So no, I don't want to be any part of that. I'll see you around, Mr. Stark," he said, before jumping off the building and swinging off into the night.

Tony pressed a thin finger to the comm in his ear.

"He said no. Vehemently and repeatedly," he said. Steve sighed.

"Then I guess we'll just have to try something else."

"What if Steve tries to talk him into joining us?" Natasha suggested. Tony shrugged.

"We can give it a shot, if you're up for it Cap?"

"Sure," Steve responded. Tony smiled.

"Great, but if this doesn't work we might have to resort to force. Spider-Man is a threat as of now."


	2. Never Bring A Gun To A Web Fight

The next night Peter tried to be more cautious on his nightly patrol, as he knew the Avengers wouldn't stop until he joined them. But even with all his efforts he still found himself cornered by Captain America at 3am.

"I saw you save that girl from her attacker," he said from behind Peter.

"I already told Stark no." Steve came up and sat beside him.

"You fight well and with a bit more training you'd be a great addition to the team, Spider-Man," he said hopefully. Peter stood up and glared at him.

"Thank-you, but just because you compliment me a couple times doesn't erase how you've treated me in the past. The answer's still no, Mr. Rogers." Steve frowned, but didn't argue as Peter jumped off the roof. The Avengers were going to become a real problem if they kept approaching him every night. Peter shook his head as he swung towards the sound of sirens. He'd fought alongside the Avengers a couple times, but he mainly fought against them. It was usually a case of; oh, this bad guy robbed a bank and instead of sending him to jail, we'll just kill him. And, Peter just couldn't accept that. So he fought them and that's how he got his reputation as a vigilante. But, as much as he hates the Avengers, he can't say he hates them when they're themselves. When they're not playing their superhero roles. Peter had accepted an internship at Stark Industries almost a year ago and had worked his way up to become Tony Stark's personal intern. And, to be truthful, Mr. Stark wasn't a bad guy. It was when he put on the Iron Mansuit that whatever humanity was in him just seemed to disappear.

"Peter," his AI, Karen, snapped him out of his thoughts. He stood on top of a three story building, looking at the scene unfolding below. It was your classic bank robbery. Two bad guys, one getaway driver. The bank robbers are idiots and trip the silent alarm, they wave around guns, yada yada. Should be easy to round them up. Peter shot a web down at one of the guys guns.

"Nice gun dude!" he yelled as his web flung it upwards at him. He caught it and smiled. The two guys yelled out in surprise. Peter jumped down from the building and landed lightly on the concrete.

"Aw, two against one? Not fair," he complained, as he kicked one of the guys legs out from underneath him.

"Never skip leg day," Peter taunted as the man scowled at him. The other man pointed his gun at Peter's forehead.

"Come on man, it's not fair to bring a gun to a web fight," he said, easily swatting it away. The man rolled his eyes and dove for the gun.

"You bad guys and your guns, it's ridic-," he stopped himself mid-sentence as pain blossomed on his lower back. Peter let out a cry as he fell forward onto his hands and knees.

"Never bring webs to a knife fight," a new voice said from above him. He felt one more stab of pain, before he finally heard the screech of car tires then it was silent. Peter cursed silently. He had been stabbed multiple times. It was too much to fix up himself, but he couldn't go to the hospital.

"Ned," he muttered to himself, before slowly attempting to stand up. Peter winced as he covered as much as he could of his back in webbing.

"Peter, you should not be swinging right now. You need a hospital," Karen said worriedly.

"I'm fine, Karen," he said, swinging up onto the building beside him. Other than the fact that he almost swung right into most buildings he passed and he fell over on every one he attempted to land on, Peter thought he actually did okay getting to Ned's. He knocked loudly on his friends bedroom window.

"Please be awake," he muttered under his breath. The window opened and Peter almost collapsed inside.

"Peter are you- OH MY GOD!" Ned yelled.

"Ned shut up," Peter said, slurring his words slightly.

"Peter, you have four stab wounds in your back," Ned said, his eyes wide. Peter waved a hand.

"I'm fine. Can you fix me?"

"You need to go to the hospital, Peter," Ned said seriously. Peter glanced at him, seemingly fully aware.

"No hospital," he said, before promptly passing out.


	3. Lying To Their Faces

Peter woke up to the blaring of an alarm clock. He slowly opened his eyes to see Ned's worried face looking down at him.

"Oh, thank god," Ned said quietly. Peter grimaced as he sat up. He frowned. How had he gotten to Ned's last night? He remembered going out on patrol, then Steve Rogers approached him, then, he had no idea.

"Peter, you got stabbed four times, and passed out in my bedroom at three in the morning," Ned explained, seeing Peter's confusion. The memories suddenly came flooding back to him. Peter slowly stood up with a quiet grunt of pain. God, it hurt. But, he put on a fake smile for Ned.

"I'm fine now," he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Ned let out a sigh of relief.

"I was so worried," he said, giving Peter a hug. Peter clenched his teeth when Ned brushed one of the bandaged knife wounds, but didn't make a sound.

"Thanks for patching me up," Peter said quietly. Ned smiled.

"No problem, also, my mom's able to give us a ride to school, so you should probably get out of the spider-suit," Ned said. Peter cursed. Of course it was Monday. Damn Parker Luck. How was he supposed to act like everything was fine all day at school, and even worse, in the lab with Mr. Stark. He gave Ned a painful smile.

"Right, I forgot. I'll go get dressed," he said, walking as best as he could out of the room. God, he hoped Ned didn't notice the major limp he was trying to hide. Peter walked to the bathroom and opened the cupboard, where he had a small stash of clothes for emergency 'sleepovers'. He carefully got dressed, trying not to cry out in pain every time his hand brushed the bandaging of one of his wounds. Once he was done he washed his face of blood and dirt from the night before. He grimaced as he turned to grab the door handle. It was going to be a long day.

Everything hurt and Peter had P.E. next. Shit. He couldn't do P.E. but there was no way to get out of it without telling Coach Wilson that he'd been stabbed four times. So, he decided to suck it up and try his best.

Bad decision.

Halfway through the class, Flash pointed out the massive, wet circle on the back of his shirt. Luckily, only he and Ned realized it was blood and Coach Wilson sent him to shower early. But, of course, Parker Luck struck again and Flash decided to follow him into the change room.

"Damn, Penis are you really so out of shape that- oh my fucking god," he said, as Peter hastily pulled his shirt back on over the blood-soaked bandages. Peter shut his eyes in frustration.

"What do you want, Flash?" he asked, opening his eyes again. Flash's eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped.

"Your back, what the hell happened?" he asked, actually sounding concerned.

"None of your business," Peter said with a grimace of pain. Flash stuttered for a second.

"Dude, you've literally got blood all over your back, what happened?" Peter snapped.

"It doesn't matter, Flash! If you really want to help, go get Ned and stay out of it!" he yelled. Flash raised his hands.

"Jesus, okay man," he said before darting out of the change room. Peter let out a quiet yell of frustration as he sat down on one of the benches.

"Peter?" Ned's tentative voice came from around the corner.

"Do you have more bandages, Ned?" Peter asked hopefully. Ned stepped around the corner holding a white roll and Peter let out a sigh of relief.

"You're a life saver, man," he said, as Ned started to re-bandage his wounds.

"That's what I'm here for," Ned said, smiling.

Besides excruciating pain and a bunch of almost-concerned looking glances from Flash, the rest of the day went pretty well. Ned made sure to re-bandage his wounds one last time before he headed off to Avengers tower. This was the part of the day he was least looking forward to. The Avengers were keeping an eye on Spider-Man, so they were bound to know that he got stabbed last night. If any of them caught him in any pain the whole gig would be up. And, the Avengers are hard people to fool. Yet here he goes about to walk into Avengers Tower and lie to their faces. He sighed and put on a smile, before climbing into Happy's car.

"Hey, Happy!" he said with as much excitement as he could muster.

"Hi, Peter," Happy said, pulling out of the school parking lot. "How was school?"

"Fine, it was pretty average," Peter said with a smile. Happy caught Peter's stare in the rear-view mirror.

"How was your spanish test?" he asked.

Peter frowned. Happy never asked this many questions. He definitely knew something was up.

"I think I did pretty good, but they haven't been marked yet," Peter said quickly. "Anyway I have a whole boat-load of homework so I think I'll try and get that done on the drive," he said, as he popped his earbuds into his ears. He could tell Happy wasn't fooled, but the driver put the divider up between them anyways. Peter let out a quiet curse. He couldn't even trick Happy into thinking he was fine. How was he supposed to trick the Avengers?


	4. Our Little Bug Problem

Tony checked his watch. 3:45pm. The kid should be here any minute now. He paced nervously around his workshop. Happy had called ahead to let him know something was off with Peter and frankly, he was worried.

The second the kid walked through the door he gave him a once over. He looked tired and definitely like he was trying to hide something, but otherwise, fine.

"Hey, Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed. Tony immediately noticed that, while he was still very excited, he wasn't as jumpy and high-energy as he usually was.

"Hey, Peter," Tony said with a grin. "I was thinking we could work on an Iron Man suit today." Peter's eyebrows shot up.

"Really?" he asked. Tony nodded.

"There's only one condition," he said. Peter grinned excitedly. "Happy phoned to tell me something's wrong and I've noticed it too." Peter's smile immediately dropped into a frown. "Nothing's wrong Mr. Stark. I'm fine, really," Tony scoffed. Obviously the kid was lying. "Pete obviously something's up."

"It doesn't matter, it's honestly nothing," he said defensively. Tony sighed and decided to drop it for a little while.

"Alright, let's go kiddo," he said, leading the way over to one of his old Iron Man suits. Tony started explains what he wanted done. Peter nodded along clearly not paying attention.

"Think you can handle that?" Tony asked. Peter looked up with a nervous smile.

"Of course I can Mr. Stark," he said. Tony sighed.

"Even using the blowtorch?" Tony asked eyebrows raised. Peter grinned.

"Yeah, Mr. Stark. I heard what you said about the blowtorch and I'll be careful," he said. Tony scoffed.

"I never said anything about a blowtorch Pete. What's wrong? It's clearly something pretty big," Tony said. Peter started fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt.

"It's nothing, Mr. Stark. I promise." Tony frowned, noticing Peter putting more of his weight on one leg then the other.

"Peter are you hurt?" he asked, getting up out of his chair. Peter's eyes widened. So, he was hurt.

"No! No, I'm not!" Peter said quickly. Tony nodded.

"Sure, and I'm not a billionaire," he said sarcastically. Peter grimaced as he took a step backwards. Tony watched closely and noticed one of Peter's hands impulsively twitch towards his back. Tony frowned.

"Your back?" He asked. Peter's eyes somehow widened even more.

"No!" Peter exclaimed with a nervous laugh.

"Kid, if you're hurt, you have to-."

"Tony!" Steve called, interrupting him. Tony turned to find the other man standing at the doors to the lab.

"What?" Tony asked. Steve noticed Peter and smiled.

"Hey Peter," he said, giving him a wave before turning back to Tony. "Natasha wants to talk about our, uh, little bug problem," he said, floundering for words. Peter was a big fan of Spider-Man and would never forgive them if he knew they were trying to unmask him. Tony sighed.

"Is now really the time, Steve?" he asked, gesturing in Peter's direction. Steve frowned.

"It won't take long he can wait here, and besides Natasha said if you don't come she'll turn you into a human kebab," Steve said. Tony gave in.

"Fine, but we're not finished Pete. I'll be back soon," he said with a warning glance at Peter. The kid nodded and took a seat at Tony's desk.

Natasha stood just a little ways down the hallway.

"What's this all about?" Tony asked, obviously annoyed. Natasha smirked.

"We can take Spider-Man down tonight," she said. Tony gave her a quizzical glance.

"Why tonight?" Steve asked.

"Spider-Man got stabbed last night. He's weak, and knowing him, he'll still go out on patrol. To help the 'little guys' or whatever the hell he always says," she explained. Steve's eyebrows shot up.

"How'd he get stabbed?" Tony asked.

"Tried to stop a bank robbery. My sources say one of the guys got him four times in the back," Natasha said. Tony smiled.

"Perfect, he would've been easy to get before, but now? Piece of cake," he said confidently.

Peter frowned. Mr. Stark was happy he got stabbed? Because it made him an easier target for the Avengers? He was mad. He wanted to punch Mr. Stark. God, how could he ever come to be friendly with the Avengers? They were rich entitled douchebags. He shook his head. At least they didn't know about his healing factor, or his spider- sense yet. They'll expect him to be weak and powerless, when in reality, he'll be almost healed. And that leaves him in the perfect position to kick their asses tonight. He smiled at the thought and quickly scribbled a note to Mr. Stark, telling him that May called and he had had to go home. Peter grabbed his bag and snuck out the door. Mr. Stark was down at the end of the hall talking to Ms. Romanoff and Mr. Rogers. Luckily, they had their back to him so he was able to sneak the opposite way without them noticing. He let out a sigh of relief as he got off the elevator and headed for the main doors. He had taken a handful of Advils -that's what it took for them to work with his metabolism- just after Tony had left with Mr. Rogers and he could feel them starting to kick in. As soon as he got out of the building he raced to the nearest ally to change into his suit.

"Hey, Karen," he said with a smile.

"Hello, Peter. You are looking much better than yesterday," she said happily. Peter grinned and swung out into the city.

"I don't know, Tony. Spider-Man puts up a good fight," Steve said, crossing his arms. Tony scoffed.

"We're the Avengers. I'm pretty sure we can take down a twink like him." Steve shook his head and Tony rolled his eyes. Sure, he guessed when Spider-Man teamed up with the Avengers, he fought pretty well. But it was nothing Natasha, Steve and Tony couldn't handle.

"Don't worry, Steve. Even if he fights as good as you seem to think he does. He won't tonight. He's weak. We'll get him," Natasha said with a smile. Steve nodded, convinced.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Tony asked. Natasha smirked.

"He'll be weak and not expecting us to jump him. So we take advantage of that. He'll get into a fight with some low level crook and right after that we'll go one at a time, so that even if he escapes on of us, he'll fall right into the next's hands," she said. Steve nodded.

"I like it. I'll let you know when he's out," Tony called over his shoulder as he walked back to his lab.

"Okay, kid. Let's get this- Peter?" he asked, finding the lab empty.

"Peter?" Tony noticed a bright green sticky note stuck to the side of his Iron Man suit. He walked over to it and picked it up.

_Sorry I didn't say goodbye but I didn't want to interrupt your meeting. May called and said I had to come home. -Peter Parker_

Tony frowned and put the note down. He should probably call the kid and make sure everything was okay. Tony picked up his phone and started to dial Peter's number, but a flashing light on the screen in front of him distracted him. He shut his phone off and jammed it into his pocket. He could call Peter later. Spider-Man was out on patrol.


	5. Three’s A Crowd

Tony stood atop a tall building, watching a blinking red dot on his frontal display.

"Spider-Man is half a block out," Tony said quietly into his comm. "Nat, how's he looking?"

"He's pretty beat up. Those crooks certainly didn't go easy on him," Natasha replied. Tony smirked.

"Good. And, neither will I." Steve sighed over the comms.

"Just be careful, Tony," he said. Tony rolled his eyes.

"I will, Capsicle."

Spider-Man came swinging around the corner, clearly in a rush.

"Hey, Underoos!" Tony called, as he flung himself into the air beside Spider-Man.

"I already said no, Mr. Stark," he said crossly. Tony laughed.

"I'm not asking anymore, Spider-Man," he said. Spider-Man turned his head towards him slowly.

"I don't care," he said, swinging onto the roof of the nearest building. "My answer's still no, whether you're asking or not." Tony held up his hand and fired a repulser blast at Spider-Man's chest. The eyes on the arachnid's suit seemed to widen as he moved at superhuman speeds to avoid getting hit. Tony frowned. How the hell was Spider-Man moving so fast? He had gotten stabbed multiple times yesterday, right? Yet, he hadn't so much as let out a grunt of pain or even a flinch when he twisted to avoid the blast. It was almost like he had some sort of hightened healing factor. That had to be it. Any normal human or even a slightly enhanced human would never have recovered so fast.

"I knew you were a bad person, but this is a new low for you, Mr. Stark," Spider-Man said before jumping off the roof. Tony scoffed. The vigilante wasn't getting away that easily. Tony jumped off the roof after him and quickly caught up. He shot a repulser blast up ahead and cut off the arachnid's web. This sent Spider-Man quickly tumbling towards the ground. Tony smirked. It was all too easy. That was, until Spider-Man flipped over in mid-air and shot a web right at Tony. It hit the Iron Man helmet and thickly covered the eye holes. Tony had to admit, the vigilante was clever. The webbing forced him to land on a nearby building to rip it off while Spider-Man flipped back around and swung off into the distance.

"Nat, he's headed back towards you," Tony said, clearly frustrated, over the comms. Natasha smiled.

"I'll get him," she said.

"Oh, and I think he had some sort of enhanced healing factor. He doesn't seem weakened at all," Tony said. Natasha frowned.

"There's nothing about that in any of the reports Fury gave me," she pointed out. Tony sighed.

"That little sneak must of hid it from us," he said. Fury had managed to talk Spider-Man into giving up a list of his powers, though it seems that the vigilante had forgotten to mention one. And, who knows what else he could be hiding from them. Natasha rolled her eyes and smirked.

"Whatever," she said, spotting Spider-Man swinging directly towards her. "I'm sure he's still no match for us, healing factor or not." She stood up out of her crouched position and walked to the edge of the roof. He was moving fast, too fast for someone who had been stabbed the night before. Natasha carefully aimed her arm at the vigilante and fired her widow's bite directly at his chest. Natasha's smirk slipped from her face when Spider-Man easily dodged the electrified disk without even looking back at her. What the hell? She fired another one. He dodged, not even sparring her a glance. Natasha groaned in frustration. There was no way Spider-Man could have possibly dodged those shots. He finally turned his head towards Natasha and laughed.

"Give up already!" he yelled. "You'll never take me alive!" Natasha huffed and put a finger to her comm.

"He's headed your way Steve, and he definitely has a healing factor and some kind of sixth sense I think. He somehow sensed my widow's bites and was able to dodge them without even looking at me," she said angrily.

Steve sighed. He knew they'd fail to catch Spider-Man. He'd told Tony and Nat that the vigilante was stronger and smarter than he seemed, but they didn't listen. Steve caught a quick flash of red and blue swinging towards him.

"I see him," he said quietly into his comm.

"Mr. Rogers I know you're here somewhere, so you may as well step out now," Spider-Man called, landing on the roof of the building beside the one Steve was on. Steve laughed and stepped out into the light.

Spider-Man saw him and dropped down in front of him.

"Is there anything I can say to make you stop hunting me?" Spider-Man asked. Steve frowned. The vigilante sounded young. Too young for everything that came with being a superhero. All the anxiety and PTSD. All the injuries. All the death. Steve muted his comm and shook his head.

"Tony and Nat have their hearts set on unmasking you," he said. Though Spider-Man was wearing his mask, Steve could almost see the hero's face fall.

"Well, if that's the case then, you can tell them they'll never catch me," Spider-Man spat. Steve nodded, catching the vigilante's use of 'them' rather than 'you', implying that he at least partly trusted Steve.

"Good luck," Steve said, silently hoping they never caught the vigilante. Spider-Man nodded and swung off into the New York Streets. Steve un-muted his comm.

"He got away," he said, with false frustration.

"Damn it," Tony said. "It can't possibly be this hard to catch that little brat." Steve smiled as he watched the quickly retreating figure of Spider-Man.

"I'm sure we'll get him next time," he lied, knowing full well that Spider-Man was way too smart to get caught by anyone.


	6. A Couple Of Two-Faced Dudes

Peter sat down beside Ned on the gym bleachers.

"He let you sit out?" Ned asked. Peter nodded tiredly. It had taken nearly twenty minutes of arguing, but Coach Wilson had finally let him sit out for his 'migraine'. Ned glanced over at him as his phone started ringing in his hand.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" he asked. Peter shook his head as he sent the call to voicemail.

"It's Mr. Stark," he said shortly. Ned frowned.

"Did they ask you again?" he asked. Peter sighed and launched into an explanation about the events of the night before.

"They attacked you?" Ned asked, once Peter was done.

"Yeah, they said I was a threat now since I didn't want to join the Avengers," he said bitterly.

Ned pulled a lined piece of paper and two pencils out of his backpack. Peter looked at him in confusion.

"What are those for?" he asked. Ned passed him a pencil and grinned.

"I have an idea for how to get the Avengers off your tail," he whispered. Peter leaned closer. Ned took that as a cue to continue.

"I was thinking you could use your internship against them," he said, drawing a very bad picture of the Iron Man suit. Peter frowned.

"How?" he asked. Ned drew an even worse picture of Spider-Man sitting on top of the Iron Man suit.

"You've worked on the Iron Man suit a couple times, right?" Peter nodded, slowly catching on.

"That's your advantage. You go in there and pull enough wires to shut the suit down for a few minutes, easy peasy," Ned said, finishing his sketch of Iron Man plummeting to the ground. Peter shot him a small smile.

"That's perfect, Ned. It could work, at least for a little while," Peter said excitedly as his phone started to ring again.

"How many times has he called today?" Ned asked. Peter sighed.

"Ten." Ned's eyebrows shot up.

"He's probably worried about you. You should answer it," he advised. Peter rolled his eyes, but answered the call anyways.

"Hey, Mr. Stark," he said.

"Hey kid, I was just calling to make sure everything's alright," Mr. Stark responded.

"Everything's fine," Peter said, maybe a little too quickly. He had every right to be mad, right? Mr. Stark had been a dick last night. Maybe not knowingly to Peter, but still, he was a dick to him nonetheless.

"You sure, kid? You don't sound fine." Peter clenched his teeth together to keep from yelling at the other man.

"Yeah, no I'm great," Peter said. Mr. Stark sighed.

"You should drop by the workshop after school today," he said. Peter wiped a hand across his face in frustration.

"Sorry, I can't tonight I have a-" he glanced at Ned for ideas.

"A what?" Mr. Stark asked suspiciously.

"Dentist appointment," Ned whispered.

"A dentist appointment!" Peter exclaimed. Mr. Stark cleared his throat.

"Alright, Pete. See you tomorrow then," he said, clearly not believing Peter's lies.

"Bye, Mr. Stark," Peter said as he hung up. Ned raised an eyebrow.

"He definitely knows something's up," Peter said.

"You'll figure something out, Peter," Ned said with an encouraging smile. Peter shook his head.

"Hey, Peter?" Someone asked from behind him.

"Flash," Ned mouthed. Peter rolled his eyes as he turned to face Flash.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. Peter glared at him.

"Why? So you can make fun of me?" Peter asked angrily. Flash's eyes widened.

"No," he said. "And I'm sorry I did that before. I wanted to ask you about-," Peter cut him off.

"Maybe later. I'm not in the mood right now."

"But-," Flash started.

"Go away, Flash," Ned said with a glare. Flash sighed, but backed off anyways as the bell rang to signify the end of the block.

"We'll figure it all out," Ned said comfortingly. "You're fighting the Avengers, if you can beat them, Flash will be nothing." Peter smiled. Ned was right. If he and Ned could get the Avengers off his tail, a high school bully would be no problem.

"Hey, Stark! Why'd you call me down here?" Clint asked, as he walked into Tony's workshop. Tony turned around from where he was working on God knows what.

"I need a favor," he said slowly.

"I'm not killing anyone for you," Clint said. Tony frowned.

"Why would I-? You know what, never mind." Clint shrugged.

"It happens more often than you think," he said nonchalantly. Tony sighed.

"Anyway, I need you to do something for me," he said. "I need you to find out what's going on with Peter. He's been acting really weird for the past few days and won't tell me what's wrong."

"So, you want me to find out why Peter, a teenager, is acting like a normal teenager?" Clint asked. Tony rolled his eyes.

"It's not normal for him. But to make things simple, yes."

"It's not like I have anything better to do," Clint said with a shrug.

"Thank you," Tony said, turning back to his work bench.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You owe me one though," Clint. said, quickly checking the time. 2:45. The kid's school finished in fifteen minutes. He could make it if he was quick.

A/N

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback on this story!! I love reading all of your comments and they really help with forging the story! I don't really have an update schedule, but chapters should come a little more frequently for the next couple weeks, as I'm on spring break now. Again, thank you for all the support!

-asingulardoorknob :)


	7. Eyes On The Prize

Clint got to Midtown High just as the bell rang. He was honestly surprised he got there in time, because apparently finding a place to park a motorcycle near Midtown High was much harder than it looked. He watched from across the street as students started to stream through the front doors. No sight of the kid yet though. God, this was a waste of time. Peter was just a normal teenager showcasing a bit of normal teenage angst. Stark was just mad that someone dared disobey the great and mighty Iron Man. Clint rolled his eyes. This whole "mission" was a joke. He started moving towards the school as the steady stream of students began to diminish. Why wasn't the kid out yet? School had finished nearly ten minutes ago. Clint darted across the street as the kid exited the school with his friend. Stark had told him his name. Ted? Red? Something like that. Whatever. Clint waited a couple minutes before heading in the direction the two had gone in. They were about a block ahead of him. He watched when they got stopped at an intersection and Peter's friend leaned in to whisper something. Interesting but not out of the ordinary. Clint continued to follow them taking mental notes of everything he saw. Sure, it was a little weird that they kept leaning in and muttering things to each other, but whatever. Teens keep secrets. Nothing Stark should be worried about. The only thing that was bothering Clint was how often the kid looked back. It's like he knew he was being followed. But Clint was over a block behind them, just like Nat had taught him. Even Nat hadn't realized when he'd put her tactic to the test and followed her around Manhattan. So how on earth did this kid know? Luckily, he didn't have to follow the kid much farther. He and his friend quickly headed into an apartment complex. Thank god. The kid was really starting to creep him out. Clint crossed the street and sat down in a cafe directly across from the kid's building.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered under his breath, as he ordered several large coffees.

Peter shivered. He couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He had learned to trust these feelings though. If it felt like someone was following him, someone was definitely following him. Ned frowned at him.

"Peter? Are you okay?" he asked. Peter shook his head as they reached the door to his apartment.

"Someone followed us," he said, sliding his key into the lock. Ned's eyebrows shot up.

"And you didn't think to tell me?" he half- yelled. Peter quickly shushed him as he shut the door behind them.

"I don't know who, I just had a feeling," he said slowly.

"Your spider sense?" Ned asked. Peter nodded. "Are they still watching?"

"Yeah." Ned dashed over to the small window and practically smushed his face against the glass.

"Everything looks normal," Ned said. Peter laughed and fell back onto the couch.

"Well of course you're not going to be able to see them. That's the whole point of following someone." Ned looked back at Peter and rolled his eyes.

"You know what I meant," he said, sitting down on the couch beside Peter, who sighed and flicked on the tv.

"Iron Man is out delighting passerby this afternoon. He's been spotted multiple times flying through the streets of Queens," the blonde news reporter said. Ned glanced over at Peter. "Iron Man has been stopping to ask star struck fans if they have seen Spider-Man." Peter shut off the tv and swore.

"This is bad," he said with his head in his hands.

"Yeah," Ned said, unsure of how to console his best friend. Peter stood up from the couch.

"I know we originally planned to do it tonight, but it's only a matter of time before he finds something out. Let's do it now," Peter said. Ned frowned.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Attacking Iron Man in broad daylight?" he asked worriedly. Peter shrugged.

"We can't let him keep looking through Queens because eventually he's going to find something." God, he hoped Mr. Stark wouldn't find anything, but there was no guarantees on that. Better safe than sorry. "Please, Ned," he pleaded. Ned sighed.

"Fine, let me set up my computer," he said. Peter grinned and raced to his room to change into the Spider-Man suit.

"You're the best, man!" he yelled over his shoulder.

Clint set down his fourth cup of coffee. What was Stark thinking? Peter was just an ordinary kid living an ordinary life. Stark was overreacting. Clint payed for his drinks and stepped out onto the street. Nothing was going to happen, so he may as well go back to the tower. He took one last look at the kid's building and was about to turn away, when he noticed something. Hanging off the side of the building, right near the window he had spotted Peter and his friend through earlier, was Spider-Man. Clint furrowed his brow. What the hell was he doing here? Spider-Man was well known to hang around Queens, but to hang around Peter's building? It was more than a little suspicious. It was possible he was just swinging by, but Clint didn't believe that for a second. Spider-Man was an enemy of the Avengers right now, and he could be trying to get insider information out of Peter. Clint swore under his breath and set out across the street. Spider-Man seemed to be talking to Peter's friend through the window. Definitely not a good sign. Clint picked up his pace, but just as he got to the front door of the apartment building, Spider-Man swung off. Clint sighed and pulled out his phone. He'd better call Stark before the vigilante got too far. He pressed on the contact labeled; Shell-head, and put the phone to his ear. Stark picked up after just two rings.

"Hey, Katniss. What's up?"

"I just thought you should know I have eyes on Spider-Man," Clint said.

"I'm on my way to you, hang tight Legolas," Stark said and hung up. Clint rolled his eyes and began to run in the direction Spider-Man had swung. He was really starting to regret not bringing his motorcycle.

"FRIDAY, put some juice into these thrusters. Spider-Man isn't just gonna stand still," Tony said. He was frustrated with how slow he was moving, even though he was going as fast as the suit could possibly fly.

"Boss, there is no, as you would put it, 'juice left to put into the thrusters," FRIDAY responded calmly. Tony sighed. He wasn't too far from Clint's location. It wouldn't take much longer at the speed he was going.

"Thanks FRI," he said as a flash of red and blue up ahead caught his attention.

"FRIDAY, call Legolas," he said as he shot towards the red and blue blur.

"Stark, where the hell are you?" Clint asked, sounding very out of breath. Tony frowned.

"Did you chase him on foot?" he asked. Clint sighed loudly from the other end of the line.

"Yeah, I didn't have my bike so it was my only choice," he said bitterly. Tony laughed.

"Well I got good news for you, Katniss. I see him you can stop running now," he said. Clint hung up on him. Tony shook his head and returned his attention to the matter at hand. Spider-Man had about a block head start on him.

"FRI, does he have any comms in?" he asked.

"Yes Boss, would you like me to hack into them?" FRIDAY asked. Tony smiled.

"You read my mind." A moment later Spider-Man's voice filled his helmet.

"Where is it?" the vigilante asked whoever was on the other end.

"Two blocks down," the other person replied. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Underoos," he said.

"Stark," replied Spider-Man, his voice suddenly much colder sounding.

"We need to talk," Tony said. Spider-Man landed on a nearby building and turned to face Tony.

"Agreed," he said. Tony landed on the building a couple feet in front of Spider-Man.

"Who's your friend on the comms?" Tony asked nonchalantly. Spider-Man sighed.

"None of your business, Stark." A loud rustling was heard over Spider-Man's comms.

"What was that?" Tony asked. Spider-Man didn't answer, but the person on the other end of his comm did.

"Now!" They said loudly. Spider-Man flipped up over Tony and landed on his shoulders.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tony yelled quickly flying up into the air.

"Telling you to stop hunting me," the vigilante said angrily. Tony let out a loud yell as Spider-Man began to pull wires from the neck of his suit. "This looks important," Spider-Man muttered as he pulled a thick red wire. Tony swore as his left boot's thruster went dead. "So does this one." Spider-Man pulled another wire. Tony's right hand thruster went dead.

"FRIDAY," he yelled. No answer. Spider-Man had pulled another wire.

"Sorry, Mr. Stark. It had to be done. Tell the Avengers to stop hunting me!" Spider-Man yelled as he pulled one last wire, causing his other boot's thruster to spark and go dead. Tony let out a yell as Spider-Man jumped off his shoulders.

"See you around, Stark," he said aggressively. Tony's eyes widened as his only remaining thruster started to splutter.

"Spider-Man!" he yelled, but the vigilante was gone. Tony slammed his eyes shut as his last thruster died and he fell back down to the hard roof of the building.

Clint sighed as he made his way back to the small cafe. He was tired and he could really go for another one of those coffees. It was still midday and he didn't have anything better to do anyways. Clint sat down at the same table and placed his order. He'd been sitting there for about half an hour, when he noticed Spider-Man swing by and climb up Peter's building. Twice in one day? There was no way that could be a coincidence. He averted his gaze as Spider-Man checked too make sure no one was watching him. Clint looked back at the building after a few seconds. Spider-Man was still there, but now his mask was off and he was going in through Peter's window. Clint's eyes widened in alarm. He left a twenty dollar bill on the table to pay for his coffee and dashed across the street. It was only then that he caught a good look at Spider-Man's face. He cursed loudly. Spider-Man was Peter Parker.


	8. A Little Extreme Goes A Long Way

Three loud knocks filled the apartment. Peter sent a panicked glance toward Ned.

"I'm still in the suit," he whispered. Ned swore.

"Just put on a sweater and jeans over it," he whispered back. The person at the door knocked again.

"One minute!" Peter called, pulling on his blue Midtown Tech sweater overtop of his Spider-Man suit.

"Peter, it's Clint!" The voice called from the other side of the door. Peter blanched as Ned's eyebrows shot up.

"Clint Barton? The Avenger?" Ned whispered. Peter nodded and ran out of his room towards the door.

"Peter this is important, I need to-," Peter wrenched open the door.

"Hey, Mr. Barton," Peter said nervously. "How can I help you?" Clint brushed past him and sat down on the couch behind Peter. Peter frowned and shut the door.

"Mr. Barton?" he asked.

"Listen kid, cut the crap, I know you're Spider-Man," Clint blurted. Peter's eyes widened. How the hell does Clint know? He had to just be joking right? This had to all be a joke.

"What? No, that's ridiculous," Peter said with a nervous laugh. Mr. Barton had to just be joking.

"I said cut the crap. I saw crawl up the wall and go into your window just five minutes ago," he said. Everything clicked into place.

"You were the one following me this afternoon," Peter said. Clint nodded.

"Stark was worried, and you're trying to change the subject," he said accusingly. Peter sighed. He obviously wasn't joking.

"No, that's crazy, I'm not Spider-Man," he said. Clint scoffed.

"I saw you climb into your window what other proof do you need?"

"Anything that actually proves I'm Spider-Man," Peter said crossing his arms. Did he tell the rest of the Avengers?

"Yeah? Like how you're literally still wearing the suit?" Clint asked, pointing down at his feet. Peter glanced down and froze. The red, web patterned fabric of his suit was visible underneath his pants.

"They're socks?" Peter said weakly. Clint raised his eyebrows.

"Come on, Peter. Drop the act." Peter sat down on the nearby couch, head in his hands.

"Peter! Are you ready to try on the rest of the Spider-Man costume I made you for the costume party yet?" Ned yelled loudly from Peter's bedroom. Clint stared at him in annoyance. Peter appreciated Ned trying to help, but it was a pretty flimsy excuse that he knew Clint would just see right through.

"A costume party, huh? That's your excuse?" Clint asked. Peter nodded hopefully. "How exactly does that explain you climbing up the side of the building then?" Clint asked victoriously. Peter slumped down on the couch and racked his mind for a convincing answer. Coming up with nothing he answered;

"Really good suction cups?" Clint rolled his eyes as Ned walked into the room. Peter glanced over at him.

"_Ideas?" he mouthed. Ned shook his head slightly. _

"Come on, kid. Just tell me the truth." Peter kept his gaze on Ned, who shrugged. This was Peter's decision to make.

"Fine, yes. I'm Spider-Man," Peter said, raising his right hand, where his web shooter still sat. "But, I need to know who you've told, Mr. Barton." Clint's eyebrows shot up and he raised his hands.

"Slow your roll there, Spidey. I haven't told anybody," Clint said. Peter narrowed his eyes. Clint hadn't told the Avengers?

"Why?" Peter asked suspiciously. Clint shrugged.

"I wanted your end of the story first. So I could figure out if I should keep your secret. And, I like knowing something that Stark doesn't," he said with a smirk. Peter lowered his arm.

"And, what decision did you come to?" he asked. Clint's smirk stayed on his face.

"I like knowing something Stark doesn't," he said. "I'll keep your secret." Peter nodded.

"I believe you," he said surprising even himself. "But, why were you following me in the first place?"

"Stark thought something was off with you, and he wanted me to find out what it was. He was worried about you, kid." Peter cursed softly.

"He asked you to do this after he called me today?" Peter asked.

"I think so, he just said you'd been acting weird over the last few days," Clint said.

"It's hard to act normal after you've been stabbed," Peter muttered bitterly. Clint chuckled.

"That's fair. And, I know it's hard to be nice to Stark after he's been a dick to Spider-Man. But, you've got to try harder than you have been if you don't want your secret getting out," Clint said seriously. Peter nodded.

"Thankyou," he said. Clint smiled and stood up from the couch.

"No problem, kid. And, if Stark's giving you trouble, call me. You already have my number." Peter grinned as Clint exited the apartment and shut the door behind him. Ned turned to stare at Peter.

"You have Hawkeye's number?" Peter laughed, but inside he was freaking out. He was lucky it was Clint that found out his identity. But it didn't stop him from wondering that if Clint could find out who he was so easily, how close were the Avengers to finding out too?

Tony wrenched open the door and stormed into the small meeting room. The three Avengers already seated around the large wooden table looked up at him as the door slammed behind him. He knew what he they had to do. Some of the other Avengers wouldn't like it. Oh, no, Steve would hate it. But, Tony knew it had to be done. He stomped up to the head of the table to make his announcement.

"Tony are you okay?" Steve asked worriedly. Tony spun on him.

"That little twerp got the better of me, of course I'm not okay," he fumed. Steve sighed.

"It's one incident, we'll get him next time." Tony glared at him.

"I'm going to call a press conference tomorrow," he said, now standing tall at the head of the table. Natasha raised an arched brow.

"You do that a lot," she commented. "What's so special about this one?" Tony smirked.

"If we want to drag Spider-Man out of hiding, we have to get the public in on it. We have to let them know he's a threat." Clint frowned.

"Isn't that a little extreme, Tony?" he asked. Tony glared at him. He had been expecting Steve to fight this plan, but Clint? Tony had definitely not planned for that.

"Considering what happened this afternoon? No, I don't think it's too extreme," he said. Steve sighed.

"I don't know, Tony. It just seems wrong," he said.

"We're never going to catch him otherwise, Cap. As much as I hate to admit it, he's good, maybe even better than us-."

"Which is why we need to use Tony's strategy, I agree," Natasha said. Tony saw Clint and Steve share a glance. Come on. Getting Natasha to agree to the plan held sway over both Clint and Steve. They'd both agree if Natasha was in.

"Fine," Steve said.

"Let the record show that I thought this was a bad idea," Clint added on. "But I'm in." Tony smirked.

"Perfect, because the press conference is already scheduled for tomorrow morning."


	9. One Hell Of A Bad Day

Peter jerked awake at the sound of his phone loudly vibrating. He groaned and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Hey kid, sorry if I woke you up, but you need to see this," Clint said from the other end. Peter frowned.

"See what?" he asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Clint sighed.

"Just turn on your tv and know I tried to stop this," he said before hanging up. Peter rolled out of bed and glanced at the clock on his phone. Ten o'clock. It was about time he should be getting up anyways. He sighed and made his way out to the living room. What on earth could be so important on tv that Clint had woken him up for? Peter grabbed the remote and clicked on the tv. There was a press conference on. Peter frowned as he read the text across the bottom of the screen.

**Avengers to hold press conference to request the public's assistance. **

He reverted his eyes back up to the woman currently speaking at the podium, Pepper Potts.

"I'll now pass it over to Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff!" Pepper announced as she took a step back from the podium. Tony stepped out from the side of the stage and flashed a dazzling smile at the cameras. Natasha followed him close behind and greeted the press with a wave. Clint and Steve were just behind her, but they didn't greet the press at all. They looked like they didn't want to be there. Peter thought back to what Clint had said on the phone as Tony started to speak.

"I tried to stop this," Peter muttered Clint's exact words. Stop what though? The press conference? Peter refocused his eyes on the screen.

"-we are asking for your help as citizens of New York. For the past week, we have been facing a new threat to this city. He's been active in New York for quite sometime, but only just now have we realized that Spider-Man is a threat." Peter froze, Tony's last four words ringing in his ears.

**Spider-Man is a threat.**

"-So now we turn to you, New York. We have partnered with the Daily Bugle to take down this new threat as quickly as possible," Tony said. Peter cursed colourfully. The Avengers partnered with the Daily Bugle?

"Please report any sightings of Spider-Man straight to the Daily Bugle, thank you," Tony ended with another charming smile. Peter wiped a hand across his face. Tony Stark had just turned all of New York against him.

Peter frowned as his phone started vibrating again.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Peter are you watching the press conference right now?" Ned asked in a concerned voice. Peter groaned.

"Yep," he said, watching the Avengers walk off the stage.

"I'm sorry, Peter," Ned said. Peter nodded and bit his tongue, as tears sprung to his eyes.

"Thanks, Ned. I'll call you later," he said, pulling the phone away from his ear. How could Mr. Stark do this? As a tear rolled down his cheek he thanked whatever gods were listening that May had had to go early into work. He didn't want to have to explain to her why he was crying over Mr. Stark's announcement. God, all he wanted was to help the people that the Avengers couldn't. The little guys. And, now everyone hated him for it. Maybe he should just quit being a superhero. Mr. Stark would probably love that. But, he couldn't stop. Since he'd been Spider-Man, assaults and robberies had gone down, and he knew they'd just shoot right back up again if Spider-Man disappeared. He wiped the tears from his eyes as his phone started to vibrate again. It was Clint.

"Hey, Mr. Barton," he said, his voice still a little shaky.

"I'm sorry, kid. Steve and I tried to fight it, but Tony and Nat has already scheduled it." Peter swallowed.

"It's okay, It's not going to stop me from going out," he said firmly, making his final decision.

"Good on you, kid. I promise I'll do everything I can to throw them off and I have a feeling Steve will too," he said.

"Thanks, Mr. Barton."

"Call me Clint, kid. I'll see you around," Clint said. Peter smiled and hung up the phone. He would still go out on patrol, it would just be a little harder now. Peter stood up and made his way over to the kitchen. It was now nearly eleven, and he was hungry. He grabbed to pieces of bread and hurriedly shoved them into the toaster, as his phone buzzed in his hand. He rolled his eyes as he flipped it over. Who could be calling him now? He glanced down at the screen, but it wasn't a phone call, it was a reminder. His stomach dropped in dread as he stared at the reminder on his phone.

**Internship in two hours.**

Shit. How was he supposed to even look at Mr. Stark civilly after that press conference? He couldn't even stand the thought of texting him right now, and three hours of being in the same room as the man who had just turned all of New York against him? Peter might actually strangle him. He paced back and forth across the small kitchen. He'd already blown off Mr. Stark once. There was no way he'd be able to do it again. Peter hopped up onto the counter and sighed. There was no way to get out of seeing Mr. Stark.

Peter took a deep breath as he stood outside of Avengers Tower. He could do this. He just had to go in there and pretend he didn't want to murder his mentor for a few hours. Couldn't be to hard. Right? God, he hoped so. Peter sighed and walked into the building, flashing his shiny red and gold level ten pass at the sensor beside the door. The sensor buzzed and one of the elevators on the far end of the building opened up. He raced towards it, apologizing when he almost ran full speed into an old man, but he made it.

"Good afternoon, Peter Parker," FRIDAY's soothing voice said as the elevator doors closed.

"Hey FRIDAY," he said, smiling up at the camera.

"Boss, is waiting for you in his lab," she informed him as the elevator doors reopened with a ding. Peter sighed.

"Thanks FRIDAY." He made his way over to the door to Mr. Stark's lab slowly. He certainly was in no hurry to see the man. Finally he got to the door and swiped his pass.

"Peter Parker," FRIDAY's calm voice announced as the door swung wide open. Peter stepped inside and cast a glance around the room. Mr. Stark stood in the middle with a big grin plastered onto his face.

"Peter!" he exclaimed, making his way over to him. Peter forced himself to smile as Mr. Stark ruffled his unruly hair.

"Hey, Mr. Stark," he said. Tony frowned.

"What's wrong, kid?" Peter laughed awkwardly. This was going to be much harder than he had anticipated.

"What? Nothing's wrong. Why would you think that?" Tony raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Peter," he said seriously. Peter tried not to glare at the man. He turned his back to Mr. Stark and started to pace back and forth.

"Nothing's wrong, Mr. Stark. I don't know what you're talking about," Peter said with a shrug. Tony sighed and put a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"It's something I did," he said slowly. Peter nodded despite himself. They stood in silence for a few moments. "What did I do?" Tony asked eventually. Peter bit his tongue in an effort to stop the flood of angry words that came to mind, but it was no good.

"The press conference, Mr. Stark. That was a dick move," he exclaimed angrily. Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Woah, kid. I know you like Spider-Man but it had to be done." Peter lost all his remaining resolve.

"No it didn't. Spider-Man's a good guy, he doesn't deserve all this bullshit." Tony sighed.

"No offence, Pete. But why do you care so much about what happens to Spider-Man?" he asked. Peter's mind raced to find an answer.

"He helped get me out of some really bad situations," he said vaguely.

"Care to elaborate?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. Peter glared at him.

"No," he said firmly. Tony flung his hands in the air.

"Fine, keep your secrets," he said, rolling his eyes. Peter clenched his teeth.

"I have to go," he said. Tony turned his back on Peter.

"See you tomorrow," he said. Peter wheeled around and made for the exit. He didn't say a single word in response as he slammed the door behind him.


	10. An Unlikely Friend In A Time Of Panic

Tony slowly paced back and forth across the floor of his lab. He gotten mad at the kid, just like his dad had anytime he dared question the great Howard Stark's opinion. Tony shook his head and sat down on his desk chair. He had been an asshole to Peter, and though Tony still didn't agree with the kid's defence of Spider-Man, he needed to make amends. Or at least do something to make him feel a little less like Howard. Tony picked up his phone and pressed on the little photo of Peter. The phone rang four times before it went to voicemail. Tony sighed.

"Hey, kid. I'm sorry I got mad at you over such a small thing. I've been stressed lately with the whole Spider-Man matter, and I didn't mean to take it out on you. I'm sorry. If you feel up to it, I'd love to see you back at the lab. If not, I'll see you in a couple days."

Peter furrowed his brows as he listened to the voicemail. Mr. Stark actually did sound sorry, and like he really wanted Peter to come back. But, Peter couldn't bring himself to walk back into the tower. His emotions were in turmoil and he was sure he'd do something he'd regret if he did go back. So, he had put on the suit and swung through the streets of Manhattan on his way back home. He had just stopped a purse snatcher, when the young woman who's purse had been snatched looked up at him and froze.

"Here you go," he said, holding out her purse. She stared at him in shock before snatching her purse out of his grip. Peter frowned as she pulled out her phone.

"Ma'am are you alright?" he asked. She held out her free hand.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled. Peter put his hands in front of him and inched towards her.

"Ma'am?-" he started. Her eyes widened as she furiously texted someone.

"I just texted the Daily Bugle and the Avengers will be here any minute so you- you better leave me alone!" She yelled. Peter cursed silently. He'd forgotten about that part. Peter glanced once more at the young woman before he clambered up the building beside him. He was still in Manhattan, which meant all the Avengers were close by. He needed to get back home, and fast. As he swung off towards Queens, he heard the soft hum of the Iron Man thrusters. He did not want a fight, so he hightailed it out of there, and by the time he got home, he had left the Avengers in his dust.

Peter had hoped that by the time he woke up the next morning, the Spider-Man catching frenzy would have ended. But luck was certainly not on his side. Day after day it was the same story. He goes out as Spider-Man, someone calls the Daily Bugle and he has to outrun the Avengers instead. And it was really starting to take a toll on his mental health. Peter was anxious and paranoid. It didn't help that almost everywhere he looked were the Avengers. And his enhanced senses weren't much help either. He jumped at every little sound and had frequent sensory overloads. He'd also had trouble sleeping, afraid that the Avengers had somehow followed him home and plagued with nightmares of what they'd do if they found out he was Spider-Man. After the second sleepless night Peter just gave up trying to sleep all together.

"Mr. Parker!" Peter's science teacher, Ms. Warren yelled. "This is the third time I've had to wake you up this class. Do I need to call somebody to take you home?" Peter looked up at her sleepily.

"Sorry Ms. Warren. It won't happen again," he said. She stared at him a moment longer, before nodding and turning back to the chalkboard.

Peter sighed and put husband head back down onto his arms, trying to tune her out. But, in trying to do that he ended up tuning everything else in. He swore under his breath as all the sounds in the classroom started to creep in through his ears. He felt as if he was drowning in rustling paper and tapping pencils, in whispered conversations and heavy breathing. He felt the sudden urge to rip his ears off as another massive wave of sound crashed down upon him. The lights were too bright, the slight smell of fruity perfume and sweaty teenagers was suddenly too much to bear. He wanted to scream. He was sweating all over and his hands were shaking too much, he couldn't focus on anything. It was all too much. He was breathing too fast, he couldn't get it back under control. He heard someone say his name but he couldn't concentrate on it. He slapped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. He jumped when someone put their hand gently on his shoulder. He cracked an eye open to see who it was. Flash had his hand on his shoulder, while Ned stood in front of him saying something to the rest of the class. Flash knelt down beside Peter, who was now on the floor? When did he lie down on the floor? He glanced up and came to the conclusion that he probably fell off his chair.

"Hey, Peter," Flash said softly. Peter furrowed his brows. He had to be hallucinating or something right? Flash never helped him.

"You're okay. You're at school, in Ms. Warren's Chemistry class. You had a panic attack and fell out of your chair," Flash said, loud enough only for him to hear. Peter's heart rate started to slow back to normal, as he focused on Flash's voice.

"Can you speak?" Flash asked. Peter swallowed, as the cloud of noise started to retreat.

"Yeah," he whispered. Flash smiled encouragingly.

"Awesome, that's great. Can you tell me five things you can see?" he asked. Peter nodded and looked around the classroom.

"Ned. Desks. A pencil sharpener. Chairs. A chalkboard," Peter said slowly. Flash nodded.

"Good. How about four things you can touch?" Peter took a deep breath.

"The floor. My shirt. The leg of that chair. My pants," Peter said, starting to calm down.

"Can you tell me three things you can hear?" Flash asked, taking his hand off Peter's shoulder.

"People whispering. A teacher talking next door. People walking in the hallway." Flash grinned.

"Good. Two things you can smell?"

"Perfume and sweat," Peter said, as he slowly sat up. Flash gave him a thumbs up.

"And, one thing you can taste?" Peter frowned.

"Orange juice, from this morning," he said. Ned came over and offered Peter his hand. Peter shot him a grateful smile as he stood up.

"Thanks Flash," Peter said, his voice still a little shaky. Flash smiled, as Ned slowly led Peter out of the classroom.


	11. Bringing In The Big Guns

"I'm fine, Ned," Peter said. Ned raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing him.

"Sit," Ned said, pointing to the nearby bench. Peter rolled his eyes but sat down anyway.

"I'm fine-," he started.

"Peter you just had a panic attack in the middle of class! I know you haven't been sleeping, and you haven't eaten lunch for the past couple days! You're not fine." Peter looked up at him in surprise. He hadn't even noticed that he'd not eaten anything for the past couple days. At least not until now. Ned's face softened. "I've been worried about you," he said. Peter shot him a small smile.

"You're right," he said, giving in. "I'll go home." Ned smiled back at him.

"Promise me you'll eat something when you get home," he said seriously. Peter rolled his eyes.

"I promise."

Peter felt bad about lying to Ned, but it was for the best. Besides, he only felt a little light-headed and a good patrol could clear all that up instantly. And, he could make good on his promise to Ned later. He hadn't eaten for a couple days, what was a few more hours? Peter smiled to himself as he perched on top of a building near the school, waiting for the first sign of trouble. And, it came much to quickly for his liking. Peter's ears perked up at the sound of a male scream only a few blocks away. He swung himself over the side of the building and down to the narrow alley below.

"Hey, Karen? Where exactly did that scream come from?" Peter asked as he burst out onto the bustling sidewalk. A small map with a bright red line popped up in front of his eyes.

"Follow the line," Karen said calmly. Peter smiled, as he swung over the heads of dozens of people rushing down the street. He heard a few shouts of "It's Spider-Man!" And "Someone call the Daily Bugle!" Behind him but he did his best to ignore it all and continued to swing down the street. As Peter swung into the alley that the scream had seemingly come from, a wave of dizziness washed over him. But, it was gone within seconds so he wasn't to worried about it.

"Two heat signatures," Karen supplied helpfully. "At the end of the alley."

Peter thanked her under his breath, before tip-toeing his way down the alley. He stopped at the sight of two silhouettes.

"He's not going to come, we should go," the taller of the two whispered. Peter distantly recognized the voice, but he wasn't sure from where.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon, they said he was in the area," the shorter man said. Peter grimaced as another wave of dizziness hit him. Who was the person they were waiting for? And, why would one of them scream if they were waiting on somebody to make some shady deal? Did they not realize that screaming tends to draw more attention to people? Peter inched closer as the two started whispering again.

"This is ridiculous," the taller man said, shaking his head. The shorter one sighed.

"How about we wait ten more minutes, then we can go." Peter inched forward yet again, but a loud crack broke the silence of the alleyway. Both men whipped around.

"Who's there?" the taller one boomed. Peter cursed in his head and looked down at the stick he had stepped on. There goes the element of surprise. Peter rolled his eyes and stepped out into a patch of dim light, just enough so that the two men could see who he was.

"Hey guys! Has anyone ever told you that screaming is a bad way to keep attention away from yourself?" Peter said, taking a step forward. One of the men laughed quietly.

"Unless you want the attention of a superhero," the shorter man said, stepping forward just enough for Peter to be able to see his face. Peter froze.

"You're Bruce Banner," he said in shock. The man nodded.

"Tony said he'd had enough of you, and it was time to 'call in the big guns'," Bruce said, raising his hands into air quotes. The other man stepped forward to stand beside Bruce. Peter's eyes widened in panic as he took a step back.

"Thor," he said almost breathlessly. Damn it. He could evade a few, slightly enhanced humans, like Mr. Stark or Captain Rogers. But, Thor or the Hulk? No, he had no chance. Peter held out his hands in front of him.

"Stay back," he warned. Bruce sighed.

"Tony said to just grab you, but I don't think that's fair. I want to talk, so does Thor." Peter eyed them warily. No one ever just wanted to talk in the superhero world, but this was Dr. Banner. Who Peter Parker trusted, but could Spider-Man? What about Thor? Peter had never met him before, but he knew his only chance at beating Thor was if he ran, now. Peter weighed his options and eventually followed his gut feeling, which told him to stay and listen to the two Avengers. Bruce gave him a small smile.

"Before we left the tower, Clint and Steve talked to us. They defended you, told us to leave you alone and tell Tony you had gotten away," Bruce said. Peter tried to concentrate on what Bruce was saying but he felt dizzy again. He reached out for the alley wall to support himself, waiting for the wave to pass. But, this time it didn't. He was getting more dizzy and lightheaded by the second. but this time it did not pass.

"And don't worry our comms are 'broken' at the moment," Thor said with a wink. Peter felt his heart pounding in his chest as he leaned further against the wall. Bruce frowned.

"Are you all right?" he asked. Peter tried to nod, but his body wouldn't let him. The edges of his vision were going fuzzy. Bruce rushed forward.

"Spider-Man! Can you hear me?" he said loudly. Peter felt his legs give out beneath him as he fought to stay conscious.

"Thor, call Steve. His apartment's nearby, we can help him there," Bruce commanded, tossing his phone to the God.

"Come on, stay with me, Spider-Man," Bruce said, but Peter couldn't hold on any longer. He finally let himself drift off into the dark.


	12. Double The Trouble

Peter blearily blinked his eyes open. He was lying on a rather hard mattress with thin, white sheets wrapped around him. He frowned. Definitely not his own bed. He cast his gaze around the room, hoping for some hint of where he was, and unfortunately he found one. On the other side of the room sat Captain America, reading a book. Peter started to panic. The Avengers had managed to catch him. But, how? His head throbbed painfully as all the memories came rushing back. He'd been in an alley. He was dizzy. Thor and Dr. Banner had been there. And, he'd passed out. He bit his lip nervously. How the hell was he going to get out of this one? Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Steve watching him.

"Captain," Peter said nervously. The man smiled.  
"Finally awake, I see." Peter sat up on the bed, as Thor, Bruce and Clint rushed into the room. Peter shot Clint a nervous look that Clint didn't seem to see.  
"Hey, take it easy, kid," Bruce said. Peter's breathing started to speed up. Kid? Did they know his identity? His hand flew up to his face and relief washed over him when he felt his mask still there. Steve gave him a gentle smile.  
"Don't worry, son, we didn't take it off," he said. Peter glanced over at Clint, who gave him a sharp nod. They were telling the truth.  
"Thank-you," Peter said. Thor grinned.  
"It was no problem, Man of Spiders." Bruce rolled his eyes fondly.  
"On a more serious note, Spider-Man. When was the last time you ate anything?" Peter frowned.  
"It's been a couple days, I think. Evading you guys is kind of a full time job," he said sheepishly. Bruce sighed.  
"And the last time you had a good night's sleep?" Peter laughed nervously.  
"Probably about the same as eating, maybe longer." Steve shook his head.  
"Nightmares?" he asked gently. Peter nodded.  
"I'll talk to Tony," Steve said, frustration clear in the way he clenched his jaw. Peter shot him a small smile, even though the man couldn't see it.  
"I'd appreciate that," he said.

"I gave you some nutrients while you were asleep, so you'll be fine for a little while, but when you get home you need to eat," Bruce said sternly. Peter nodded.

"Thanks Dr. Banner, I will." Clint patted him on the shoulder.

"Well, Spider-Man, you'd better run along home now." Peter nodded.  
"Hey Karen?" he asked. Steve looked confused.  
"Who's Karen?" Bruce asked.  
"What time is it?" Peter turned towards his attention to the Avengers. "My AI."  
"It is 12:30pm." Karen supplied. Peter's eyes widened as a curse slipped from his mouth.  
"I gotta go! Thanks for the help guys!" Peter called over his shoulder as he raced out of the small apartment.  
"Remember to eat something!" Bruce yelled after him.  
"Karen! How many calls have I missed?" Peter asked, racing down the carpeted hallway towards the elevators.  
"Thirty-eight. Twenty-six from Aunt May, seven from Ned, three from Mr. Stark, and two from Clint Barton," Karen filled him in.  
"Shit. Call Aunt May."  
"Of course, Peter. Calling Aunt May." Peter stepped into the elevator and took a deep breath.  
"Peter?" Aunt May's worried voice flooded the line.  
"Hey, May," Peter said. A deep sigh of relief came from the other end of the line.  
"I was so worried! I called the school and they said you'd left early because you were sick and I called Ned, but he didn't know where you were and-," Peter cut her off.  
"I'm fine, May." The elevator dinged and he emerged out onto the first floor.  
"You were missing for almost an entire day Peter! I thought you'd been kidnapped or murdered or something!" May practically shrieked. Peter raced through the lobby of the apartment building, passing quite a few stunned tenants, and out onto the street.  
"I'm sorry for worrying you, but I'm fine," Peter said slowly.  
"We'll talk about this when you get home," she said and hung up. Peter sighed and swung up onto the roof of a nearby building.  
"Karen, call Ned."  
"Calling Ned Leeds."  
"Peter? Oh my God, are you okay? What happened?" Ned rambled. Peter smiled fondly.  
"I'm fine, Ned, but the Avengers got me," Peter said, swinging from building to building. He heard a loud gasp from the other end.  
"Did they unmask you?" Ned asked seriously.  
"No, it looks like the only two that are serious about all that are Mr. Stark and Ms. Romanoff, and they weren't there."  
"You're lucky, Peter, but how did they catch you in the first place?" Ned questioned.  
"I may or may not have passed out from not eating enough and not getting enough sleep," Peter answered sheepishly.  
"Peter! You know I hate to say it, but I told you so." Peter sighed.  
"I know, man. I have to call Mr. Stark back, so I gotta go."  
"Call me when you get home, okay?"  
"Sure, Ned," Peter said calmly. "Karen, hang up and call Mr. Stark."  
"Of course. Calling Mr. Stark," Karen responded.  
"Hey, kid. Where've you been?" Mr. Stark asked, picking up after only one ring. Peter frowned.  
"Uh, I was sleeping because I was feeling sick," he responded quickly.  
"That's odd, May called me asking if I knew where you were." Shit. Of course she did, why hadn't he thought of that? "Kid? Are you okay?"  
"My phone was broken?" Peter said, hoping that Mr. Stark wouldn't see straight through the flimsy lie.  
"If you really don't want me to know that badly-."  
"Sorry, Mr. Stark. It's kind of a secret," Peter said, cutting him off. The other man sighed.  
"Whatever, as long as May knows, I don't need to," Mr. Stark said.  
"She will. I'll tell her when I get home," Peter lied. "Alright, kid, but you can't just go around pulling disappearing acts like you did today."  
"I know, it's just that-." Peter cut himself off mid-sentence as the sound of gushing wind filled the line. "Are you driving?"  
"No," Mr. Stark said. "I'm just in the suit."  
"Why?" Peter asked, pausing where he stood on top of a three story building.  
"I found Spider-Man."


	13. A Little Standoff

"You found-?" Peter cut himself off and whirled around. The Iron Man suit was just over a block behind him. He cursed in his head as he swung himself off the building.  
"Shit. He saw me," Tony muttered.  
"Well it sounds like you're busy now," Peter said with a nervous laugh. "I'll call you later?"  
"Sure, sounds good," Tony responded, obviously distracted.  
"Awesome." Peter lowered his voice. "Karen, hang up."  
"Of course, Peter."  
"Hey, Spider-Man!" Tony yelled, almost as soon as the call ended. Peter twisted his neck to glance over his shoulder. The Iron Man suit was quickly gaining on him.  
"Leave me alone, Stark!" Peter yelled. He heard the man scoff.  
"If there was ever a chance I would do that, it's long gone by now." Peter flipped up onto the top of a nearby building and turned to face the Iron Man suit.  
"Why? Just because I pulled a few wires out of your suit the other day?" he asked, playing along with whatever game the billionaire was playing.  
"That amongst other things," Mr. Stark said coolly. Peter crossed his arms.  
"Other things? Like what, Stark?" he asked. Tony took a step closer to him.  
"I didn't come here to discuss every bit of bullshit you've pulled, Spider-Man."  
"Incoming call from Ned Leeds," Karen said. Peter bit his lip nervously.  
"Answer it," he decided. Almost immediately his best friend's loud voice filled his ears.  
"Peter! Are you okay?"  
"I'm fine, just ran into a little trouble," Peter answered.  
"A little? Your standoff with Iron Man is all over the news-," Mr. Stark coughed loudly.  
"Hey, Spider-Man. I'm still talking to you." Peter shook his head.  
"No you're not. See you around!" he called over his shoulder as he vaulted himself over the edge of the building.  
"Dude! That was awesome!" Ned practically yelled. Peter did a flip in midair as he shot out a web towards the next building along. "But I don't think he got the message, he's following you, and he looks angry." Peter dared a quick glance behind him. Ned was right. Mr. Stark looked pissed.  
"Hey, Stark!" he yelled. "I said see you around, not; 'follow me home.'"  
"Spider-Man this is your last warning: turn yourself in or we'll do it for you," Mr. Stark said. Peter stopped on top of a building and pretended to think about it.  
"I think I'll choose option three. Leave me the fuck alone," he said, turning on his heel.  
"Peter, duck!" Ned's frantic voice yelled over the intercom. Peter frowned but did as he was told. He cursed quietly as he watched a repulsor blast explode right where he had been standing only moments before. Peter turned to stare at Mr. Stark.  
"Oh, so now you're just gonna straight up kill me," he said coldly. The faceplate of the Iron Man suit lifted and Tony scoffed.  
"We both know a measly repulsor blast wouldn't kill you," he said. Peter shook his head in disgust.  
"Maybe, but you still tried it," he asked. Tony took a step forward.  
"You gave me no choice." It was Peter's turn to scoff.  
"There's always a choice, Stark," he said, raising his arm. Tony barely had time to lift a questioning eyebrow before the web grenade hit him.  
"It'll dissolve in two hours," Peter said, flinging himself over the edge of the building. Ned laughed loudly.  
"He's trying to follow you, but he's stuck." Peter grinned to himself.  
"On a scale of 'Spider-Man is going to get a stern talking to' to 'Mr. Stark might actually murder me', how mad does he look?" he joked.  
"I'd say about a 'he'll murder you and then give your corpse a stern talking to," Ned responded. Peter laughed as he swung onto his street.  
"Well, let's hope it doesn't ever get that far," he said. Ned simply muttered something in agreement. "I'm home now, I'll talk to you later."  
"Don't forget to eat something, Peter," Ned said seriously. Peter smiled.  
"Yes, mom," he said simply. "Karen, hang up."  
"Of course, Peter." Peter climbed up the wall of his building and in through his window. Luckily the door was already closed so he was able to just drop down into his room. He quickly got changed out of his suit and snuck out into the living room. May was nowhere in sight so Peter was able to walk right over to the door and pretend he was just coming in.  
"May? I'm home," he yelled. The woman in question popped her head out of the small kitchen.  
"Thank god, I was so worried," she said, rushing over and hugging Peter.  
"I'm fine, May," he said. She looked at him sternly.  
"Tell me where you were last night. Do you know how many police stations I called? Or how many of your friends I called? Or-."  
"May, calm down. I was just staying over with one of my friends. We have a group project due soon and we wanted to finish it." May frowned.  
"Which friend? I called everyone I could think of," she said. Peter raced to find an answer.  
"Uh, Steve. He's new," he said. She frowned.  
"Okay, but don't do that again. Tell me before you go over to someone's house." Peter smiled and walked over into the kitchen.  
"I meant to call you, but my phone was dead." She nodded.  
"One more thing, why'd you leave school early and not tell me?"  
"I wasn't feeling well and I knew you were working. I didn't want to bother you," he said, grabbing a banana off the kitchen counter.  
May gently pulled him into another hug.  
"I love you, Peter."  
"I love you too, May."

Peter heaved a deep sigh of relief once May walked off down the hallway. Thank god that was over. He didn't like lying to May, but it was the only way to keep her safe. Peter took a bite of his banana as his phone chimed in his pocket. He frowned and pulled it out. It was a text from Mr. Stark asking him if he was still coming in to intern today. Peter grinned as he texted him back.  
_Depends, are you still stuck on that building Spider-Man webbed you to? _


	14. Running Out Of Time

Peter tried to ignore the tingling sensation working it's way down his back, but that's much harder said than done. His eyes were darting restlessly around Mr. Stark's lab, hoping to find what was causing his spider-sense to go off. Once in a while a particularly strong tingle would run down his back, and his head would snap up, earning him a couple odd looks from Mr. Stark. But, he couldn't just ignore it. His spider-sense had been going off all the way to the tower. Something had to be wrong for it to be going off so much, right? Peter cast his gaze around the room until he caught sight of a dark silhouette standing behind one of the tinted windows of the lab. He must of been staring too long or made a startled noise when he saw it because Mr. Stark glanced up from his work and frowned.

"You okay there,kid?" he asked. Peter tore his gaze away from the window.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just gonna go to the bathroom quickly." Mr. Stark nodded suspiciously.

"Alright, but if you're not feeling well again, you need to go home." Peter furrowed his brows. Sick? He wasn't- then it clicked- he'd told Mr. Stark he'd been sick when he was really passed out in Captain America's apartment. He laughed nervously, and bolted out of the lab, only to run right into someone else.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to- hi Ms. Romanoff," he said timidly, trying to squeeze past her. She stuck out her hand to stop him.

"Hey, Spider-Man," Natasha said with a small smirk. Peter froze.

"Ms. Romanoff? What are you saying?" he asked as calmly as he could.

"I know you're Spider-Man," she repeated. Peter scoffed lightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Natasha sighed.

"You're a good kid, so I'm going to give you one week to tell Tony. Then I'll tell him," she said.

"What? No, I can't do that."

"You can and you will. One week," she said letting the last two words hang in the air as she walked off.

"At least tell me how you found out," he called after her. She glanced over her shoulder.

"Clint's never been good at keeping secrets from me. I figured out it had something to do with you and watched you crawl out your window in the suit." Peter squeezed his fist in frustration. This was not good. How on earth was he going to tell Mr. Stark he was Spider-Man? He cursed Natasha quietly in his head as he walked back into the lab.

"Hey, Mr. Stark? I think you're right, I feel sick and I need to go home," Peter said quietly. Tony looked up from whatever he was working on and shot him a small smile.

"I'll drive you."

"Oh no, you don't have to do that," Peter said. Tony waved a hand in the air.

"It's fine, I have nothing better to do anyways, kid." Peter sighed and followed him out of the lab. "But, should I be worried about you throwing up in my car?"

"No, I should be fine," Peter said, his heart racing in his chest. Mr. Stark paused and pressed a button to summon his private elevator.

"Good, then we'll take the Audi," he said with a wink.

"You really don't have to do this, Mr. Stark," Peter said, following Tony into the elevator as the doors closed behind him.

"No, but I do have to do this," Mr. Stark muttered. "FRIDAY, lock down the elevator." The bright lights in the small box cut out and switched to a gentle blue.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter asked worriedly. The man turned to face him.

"Okay, kid. Cut the bullshit, I know you aren't sick. You haven't been answering my calls or texts but when you do you either lie to me or act all passive aggressive with me. You've been leaving the internship early with bullshit excuses. You have to tell me what's going on, Pete." Peter froze. How on earth was he supposed to get out of this one? Mr. Stark had him cornered. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just worried," he added. Peter sighed.

"Uh, I've just been really stressed lately, I guess?" Technically it wasn't a lie. Mr. Stark's face softened a bit.

"Stressed about what?"

"Just, kinda everything," Peter said with a shrug. Mr. Stark nodded.

"Well, if you need anything, I'm here," he said, pulling Peter into a gentle hug.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark." Peter felt himself relax slightly. All the drama with the Avengers seemed to just melt away as he stood there, wrapped in his mentor's arms. His mentor. It'd been a long time since he'd thought of Mr. Stark as his mentor and not the Avenger intent on exposing him. Peter sighed, wishing this moment would last forever.

"FRIDAY, take us to the garage," Tony said, pulling away from Peter. The lights in the levator faded from the gentle blue to the harsh white they had been before.

"Now let's get you home, Pete."

Peter hadn't even closed the door to the apartment when his phone started ringing. He smiled upon hearing the familiar yodelling ringtone.

"Hey, Ned," he said, answering the call.

"Dude, the Vulture broke out of jail!" Ned exclaimed.

"The Vulture? Like Liz's dad?"

"Yeah, and I'll bet he's gonna come straight for you."

"Why would he? I saved his life," Peter said confidently, not wanting to let anything ruin the good day he was having.

"Sure, but he knows who you are and you did put him in jail in the first place." Peter rolled his eyes.

"I'll be fine Ned. Even if he does come after me, I've outsmarted the Avengers, I think I can take a dude in a bird costume," he said confidently.

"But, Peter, he knows who you are and he can use that against you pretty easily. He could leak your identity to the press, or the Avengers or-." Peter cut him off.

"Don't worry, he'll be back in jail before he can even say a word to anyone about who I am." Ned sighed.

"Fine, but be careful, Peter. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"I will."

**A/N**

**Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well. I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of you so, so much. Just seeing how many people are actually reading and enjoying my writing really warms my heart, so thank you! Also, we're approaching the last few chapters now, so hopefully updates will be coming a little quicker, as I'm so excited for what I have planned for the ending of the fic. One other thing is I have an AO3 account where I will be publishing Knives Out fics if anyone is interested in that, my username is also asingulardoorknob on there. Again, thank you so much for the support and I love you all.**

** -asingulardoorknob :)**


	15. Bringing About Ones Own Doom

"And she said you had to tell Mr. Stark within the next week?" Ned asked slowly. Nodding his head, Peter sighed. The hallway to his first class suddenly seemed way too long.

"Or she'll tell him herself," he said. Ned paused in front of the door to their shared chemistry class.  
"That's not good, Peter," he said. Peter bit his lip nervously and pushed past Ned into the classroom.  
"I know, I'll figure something-." He cut himself off upon noticing every eye in the classroom on him. Right, the last time he'd been in this class he'd had a panic attack and left early. He sighed and made his way over to his desk.  
"Hey, Parker! You need any pillows around your desk in case you fall out of your chair again?" one of Flash's friends taunted. Peter simply shot him a glare.  
"Knock it off, Ryan," Flash said quietly. The other kid, Ryan, frowned.  
"Are you defending Puny Parker, Flash?" he asked, his voice dangerously low. Flash stood up from his seat, and stepped closer to Ryan.  
"Yeah, I am, Ryan." Peter's eyes darted back and forth between the two boys. There was no way this was actually happening. He glanced back at Ned, who simply nodded. Peter wasn't just imagining things. He quickly returned his gaze to the scene unfolding before him. Ryan muttered something under his breath, evidently only for Flash to hear, but Peter's super-hearing was unfortunately able to catch it. It was far meaner than anything Flash had ever said to him. A sickening crack echoed through the room as Flash's fist collided with the other boy's nose. Peter's eyebrows shot up practically to his hairline. Had Flash just punched Ryan to defend him? Ruby red blood slowly dripped from Ryan's nose and onto the classroom floor.  
"Eugene Thompson!" Ms. Warren thundered as she marched into the room. Flash spun on his heel to face her as Ryan dramatically cradled his nose.  
"He punched me, Ms. Warren!" Ryan whined.  
"Save it. Both of you, to the principal's office right now. You can explain it to him." Flash nodded and marched out of the classroom, Ryan trailing glumbly behind him.  
"Ms. Warren, Flash was just-," Peter started.  
"Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds, please take your seats," Ms. Warren said, effectively cutting him off. Peter sighed, but did as he was told.  
"I have a very special announcement for everyone today," Ms. Warren said, clapping her hands together. Immediately, the classroom filled with quiet chatter.  
"If you'll recall, you all took a mandatory test at the beginning of the year." A few students nodded. "Well, it was put out to every high school by Stark Industries. They said that if any student in the class scored higher than a ninety-five percent that class would win a field trip to Avengers Tower." The murmurs in the class got slightly louder. Peter put his head in his hands. A field trip to Avengers Tower. Ms. Warren clapped her hands again.  
"We had one student not only cross that ninety-five percent threshold, but score one-hundred percent on the test." Peter groaned quietly into his hands. He could guess who that one student was.  
"That student was, Peter Parker!" Ms. Warren announced, confirming his suspicions. Peter sighed. He really had a bad habit of bringing about his own doom.  
"This field trip will take place in two days and-." Peter tuned her out. Avengers Tower was literally the worst place in the world to take a field trip to right now. Maybe he could convince May to let him stay home.

"There's no way I'm letting you stay home from this field trip, Peter. You're the one who won the trip in the first place, and besides it might be fun," May said, with a gentle smile. Peter sighed. It was useless to keep resisting, she'd made up her mind. He slid the permission slip across the table reluctantly.

"You need to sign this if you want me to go." She grabbed a pen off the counter beside her and quickly scribbled her signature.

"And don't even think about not handing it in," May said, passing back the form with a wink. Peter sighed and took it from her.

"I'm gonna call Ned, I'll be in my room," he said.  
"Okay, dinner will be ready in half an hour," May called as he pulled out his phone and made his way to his room.

"Hey, Peter," Ned answered cheerily, after only one ring.

"May's making me go," he said, rolling his eyes even though Ned couldn't see him.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad, man. Besides, you can tell me all the secrets that our tour guide won't," Ned said.

"It's not really the trip I'm worried about it's the Avengers. No doubt they'll be at the tower and probably try to embarrass me .org something and that leaves more room for me to slip up and give away my secret identity then I'm comfortable with," Peter ranted.

"You'll be fine, Peter. I'll be there to stop you if you're about to say something." Peter snickered.

"Dude, you're even worse at keeping secrets then I am," he said. Ned huffed on the other end.

"Rude, but true."

"I gotta go, but I'll see you tomorrow," Peter said, upon hearing his name called from the kitchen.

"Don't forget to bring your permission s-." Peter cut him off by hanging up the phone. Immediately a text came in from Ned.

_Wow, rude_

Peter rolled his eyes and slipped his phone into his back pocket, only for it to buzz again. He sighed and pulled it back out.

One new message from Mr. Stark.

_Hey, kid! I just heard about the contest, congrats._

Peter cursed quietly. He'd been hoping Mr. Stark wouldn't know about it.

_Thanks. He replied._

_Fair warning, all the Avengers will be at the tower during your field trip and they all know about it._

Peter sighed. Great.

_Why'd you tell them? You know they're gonna embarrass me. He texted back._

Tony sent a laughing emoji.

_The more the merrier_

There was no way this field trip was going to be good for either Peter Parker or Spider-Man.


	16. Just The Beginning

Peter's stomach twisted nervously as the bright yellow school bus that was to take them to Avengers Tower pulled up alongside the curb. He scanned the group of students, his mind frantically searching for escape routes when he felt a gentle nudge against his shoulder.

"Peter, calm down. You'll be fine," Ned said slowly. Peter shook his head.

"I wasn't worrying, man." Ned laughed.

"Of course, and that crazed look in your eyes was because you left your lunch at home or something?" Peter rolled his eyes as the students in front of them started to board the bus.

"Fine, I may have been worrying a little bit." He felt Ned's shoulder brush against his again.

"Don't worry, if any of the Avengers try to embarrass you, I'll beat them up," Ned said, flexing his arm. Peter laughed, his worries disappearing from his head for a moment.

"I'd like to see you try-." He was cut off by a scoff from directly behind him.

"Yeah, like you know the Avengers well enough that they'd try to embarrass you," Ryan said loudly, attracting the attention of several students standing nearby. Ned rubbed a hand across his face.

"Leave us alone, Ryan." Ryan frowned and opened his mouth to retort, but upon noticing Ms. Warren staring him down from across the parking lot he decided to close it again. Peter shot Ned a nervous glance as they ascended the steps to the bus.

"Ryan's not going to help my case either. If any of the Avengers catch wind of him bullying me, I'm done for. They might actually kill him." Ned smiled.

"It's a good thing that they care about you so much. It might soften the blow when you tell Mr. Stark the truth." Peter sighed, sitting down near the back of the bus on one of the scratched up, brown leather seats.

"Let's hope so."

As they pulled up to Avengers Tower, a large chorus of 'Oohs' and 'Aahs' erupted around the bus.

"Alright Midtown," Ms. Warren said, standing up at the front of the bus. "Remember, you are here representing our school. Be on your best behaviour." There were a couple grumbled 'okays' then the race began to get into the tower first. Kids pushed a shoved playfully, hoping to be the first one off the bus and inside the massive building. Peter glanced over at Ned, making a silent request with his eyes to stay at the back of the group. Ned nodded almost imperceptibly, and they both waited until they were the only ones on the bus to disembark. Not even two steps off the bus Peter heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"Hey Parker," Flash called, walking over to join them. "Good luck with the Avengers today." Peter frowned. Flash really had done a complete one-eighty in the past week..

"You believe I actually know them now?" Flash nodded slowly.

"You're not the kind of person to lie for attention," he said. Peter shot him a small smile.

"Thanks." Flash grinned back, before running off to join two of his other friends.

Once in the main lobby their group was approached by a grinning woman with long brown hair. Peter cursed silently upon recognizing her as Jamie, a girl he'd helped out countless times in the RD department. Of course their tour guide had to be someone he knew. Damn Parker Luck.

Jamie's eyes darted over the small group of students until they finally rested on Peter. She gave him a small wave, before turning her eyes back to the rest of the group.

"Hello Midtown Tech! My name is Jamie and I will be your tour guide today," she said. "Before we begin, I'll be handing out a security badge to every student. Please keep these visible at all times." Peter sighed as she began to call names and hand each student a plain white badge with a gold number one. Finally Jamie reached Peter and smiled.

"You have your own badge, right?" Suddenly, his red level ten badge hidden in his pocket felt much heavier than before. He had been hoping to go the whole trip without revealing just how ridiculously high his clearance is.

"Yes, but am I able to get a guest badge?" he asked hopefully. Peter knew it was a long shot, but it was worth a try. She gave him a fond look.

"You know the rules, Pete. No one can have two active badges at once." Peter rubbed a hand across his face.

"Alright, thanks Jamie." She smiled again before turning back to the rest of the group.

"Okay! Now we're ready to go through security. Please form an orderly line and scan your badge as you pass the scanner." The rest of the class scrambled to form a line as Peter ushered Ned straight to the back.

"I have to use my own badge," he said softly. Ned shot him a pitying look as Ryan stepped up to the scanner first and scanned his badge.

"Ryan Johnson, have a great visit," FRIDAY's automated voice said through hidden speakers, making Ryan visibly jump. Jamie laughed lightly.

"Sorry, that's FRIDAY, the AI that controls everything in the tower." Ryan nodded and tried to play it off cooly, but it didn't work that well, considering everyone saw him jump a foot off the ground. Each student one after another went through, scanning their badges until it was just Peter left. After waiting a few beats he sighed and pulled out his bright red pass with the golden number ten on it. There were a few gasps around the class, but most- including Ryan, Peter was pleased to see- simply ogled at it. Even Ms. Warren seemed shocked by the clearance level on his badge. He quickly scanned it at the sensor, hoping to get the attention off him as fast as possible.

"Hello, Peter," FRIDAY said. "It's good to see you again. I have already informed Mr. Stark and the Avengers that you have arrived." Peter clapped a hand to his face. So much for getting the attention off himself.

"Thanks FRI," he said bitterly.


	17. From Bad To Worse

"Tony Stark? And the Avengers?" Ryan practically shouted as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd. Peter simply shrugged.

"Would you believe me if I said it was a glitch?" he asked, shoving his level ten badge haphazardly into his jeans pocket. Ryan glared at him.

"I think you owe us an explanation, Peter, don't you think." Peter swallowed nervously.

"Midtown can I have your attention once again, please." Jamie's voice carried somewhat coldly over the heads of the class. Peter sighed quietly in relief as Jamie led the class down a short hallway toward one of the lower down RD labs. He slipped to the back of the class once they got to the lab and pulled out his phone. He'd watched the demonstration they were doing a million times anyways so it didn't really matter that he wasn't listening. He stood staring down at his lock screen for a solid thirty seconds. No notifications. Complete silence from the Avengers. Which was definitely weird. Usually at least one of them would text him as soon as he entered the building. Usually Clint asking what he wanted for dinner, even if Peter wasn't staying for dinner. His ears shot up at a small sound from above. A small clank, maybe from the vents? Shit. Clint was in the vents. Of course he was. Peter racked his mind, hoping to think of something to stop Clint from jumping down into the room, but it was too late. Clint had already jumped down in front of him, making the rest of the class jump. Peter sighed.

"Hi, Mr. Barton," he said defeatedly. Clint took a step forward and ruffled Peter's hair fondly.

"Hey, squirt. Stark wants to know what you want for dinner."

"Chinese," Peter said quickly, his face a bright red. Clint grinned.

"Good choice, see you later."

"Bye," Peter said. Clint waved to the rest of the class before practically skipping out of the lab. Mentally bracing himself for a burrade of questions, he turned to face the rest of the open-mouthed class.

"Was that the real Hawkeye?" Cindy, being the first one to snap out of shock, asked. Peter sighed.

"Ye-." Ryan cut him off.

"Of course not. It's probably some street cosplayer that Peter paid to pretend to know him," he said snarkily. Jamie stepped to the front of the class and said, "Actually, Mr-," she glanced down at the nametag everyone was made to wear in the building, "Johnson. That was Mr. Barton- also known as Hawkeye," she said calmly. Ryan kept his firm glare on Peter.

"How many people did you pay to lie for you, Parker?"

"Knock it off, Ryan. It's not worth it," Flash muttered from behind Ryan, coming to Peter's rescue yet again. Ryan took his gaze of Peter to whirl around on Flash, but upon noticing Ms. Warren's cold glare on him, he made a different decision.

"Fine, but this isn't over, 'Squirt'" Ryan said, making a mockery of the nickname Clint had called Peter earlier. Peter simply chose to turn his back and ignore him, making Ryan scoff angrily. Jamie cleared her throat awkwardly, breaking up the tension in the room slightly.

"Well, let's continue with our tour shall we?" she asked, gently. A couple students nodded in agreement, as she began to lead the class out of the room.

"And that's everything from that room," Tony said sourly as the video stopped playing, lapsing the room into uncomfortable silence. Steve glanced up from the laptop Tony had been playing the footage from.

"How did we not know about this?" he asked. Tony shook his head.

"I knew he was hiding something, but everytime I asked about it he just clammed up and wouldn't talk to me. So I never pressed it."

"Peter's been bullied for a while," Bruce said sadly. Tony whipped around to glare at him.

"You knew about this?" Bruce quickly raised his hands.

"No, you can just tell from how he reacts to this kid, Ryan or whatever, that he's used to the torment." Natasha and Clint shot a glance at each other before standing up simultaneously.

"I hate to say it, but no you guys can't go kill the kid. That's illegal," Tony said, standing up to block their path.

"We need to do something about it though, Tony," Natasha said angrily. Steve smiled knowingly despite the situation.

"I think we will. You've already got something planned don't you, Tony?" Tony nodded.

"We've got a meet and greet in half an hour with Peter's class."

Jamie stopped in the middle of a long hallway and turned to face the class.

"We've got a small addition to the class trip," she said with a sly smile. Peter cursed quietly. An extra addition. Awesome. What embarrassment was coming from the Avengers next. He'd let himself have a small amount of hope when none of the Avengers had popped up for a solid forty-five minutes. But now, all that hope was gone. This extra addition practically screamed Tony Stark. Jamie shot him a gentle smile as he was herded into a small conference room along with the rest of the class. He had barely managed to take a seat at the back of the room when the door slammed open with a loud bang. The rest of the class gasped in excitement as Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton stormed into the room. Peter swallowed nervously upon noting the expressions on each Avengers face. Pure and unbridled rage. Mr. Stark stepped up to the front of the room, where a pedestal was set up and cleared his throat.

"I've been alerted of something quite alarming by my AI FRIDAY," he started. "FRIDAY runs all the security in this building as notified me upon seeing something on the security cameras." Peter froze. There was no way there was any footage of his sneaking out of the tower in his suit, and even if there was, Mr. Stark wouldn't tell the entire class that Peter was Spider-Man, would he?

"Where is Ryan Johnson?" Natasha asked impatiently. Ryan smiled airily and held his hand high in the air. Peter let out a small sigh of relief. This wasn't about Spider-Man.

"Right here, baby. Why? You want my number?" Ryan said. Natasha always had her emotions on lock down so that only people that knew what to look for could see right through her emotionless expression. But, at the moment her mask slipped and her anger slipped through. Peter watched as Steve stealthily held out his hand in front of Natasha. To the average on looker it looked like he was simply stretching his arm, but Peter knew he was holding her back.

"We saw you bullying, Peter Parker," Bruce said, taking over the lecture. "We don't like bullying, Mr. Johnson." Ryan's overconfident grin slowly started to slip off his face as he dropped his arm. Peter hid his face in his hands. This was so much worse than he ever could have imagined. Tony glared at Ryan.

"Stay away from the kid, or you might find out just how influential I am, to college administrators. You'll never get into a good college. You want a job? Not if you keep bullying my kid." Peter looked up sharply at that. My kid? Had he heard Mr. Stark correctly? Ms. Warren stood up.

"Excuse me, Mr. Stark. Do not threaten students in my class," she said, dangerously. Tony whirled on her.

"You did nothing when Peter was being bullied. I could have you fired for that." Ms. Warren opened her mouth to retort when the window behind her shattered into a million little shards, and something big rolled into the room. Peter's eyes widened as the thing- no the man, stood up and shook a few shards of glass off his long wing-like devices on his back. The Vulture made his way to the front of the class and took in the Avengers all in fight ready positions.

"It's not you I'm here for," he said, turning his back on the superheroes like they were simply citizens. He faced the class, his eyes wandering for a bit before landing on Peter.

"It's Spider-Man I want to have a little chat with."


End file.
